Big Dan's Car Wash — Local services in Fairburn

Expensive Course in Personal Economics Offered at Big Dan's Car Wash on Hwy 74 in Fairburn...

We have learned our lesson and will only use no-touch services moving forward, but if you'd like your very own personal finance course from Big Dan, be their guest!

YES, SIGNS ARE POSTED AND BIG DAN HAS EVERY LEGAL ADVANTAGE OVER US BECAUSE OF THAT, A FACT ABOUT WHICH MR. SERIO, OPERATING PARTNER, IS APPARENTLY PROUD! He never even said good morning upon his arrival, but went straight to court, telling me I could get a lawyer all I wanted...

So, today is Friday, July 21st. I have attempted to correct errors in the original communication that follows. It was sent to the Contact Us link at Big Dan's Car Wash's website on the day the incident occurred, Wednesday, July 19, 2023.

Begin Communication

We have used Big Dan's numerous times in the past, even in the 2017 VW Golf we were in today, without concern of car damage. Unfortunately the carwash ripped off the cover of our driver side rear view mirror. We went through the wash between 9:57 and 10:05 am today. As we cleared the blue vertical, spinning thingy, I looked up to see the mirror being overextended and the cover falling away into the "brush". We immediately looked for help to address the matter.

I'm sure the company knows the exact treatment we received and the redirection about your signage, notwithstanding that Assistant Manager Michelle was professional and kind in speaking with me. Operating Partner Patrick Serio, not so much. We had hoped to have assistance putting the cover back onto the mirror and having someone to buff out the now-scratched top of the cover. Mr. Serio was dismissive, hostile, and immediately presumed that we wanted to litigate. I quoted him on the incident report Ms. Michelle took.

We were on our way to our insurance agent's in Tyrone for a prescheduled appointment about an entirely different matter, but went immediately from there at about 11:45 am to our preferred service location, Heritage Volkswagen of South Atlanta in Union City to see about the car part.

I am writing to ask the company to please consider doing the right thing by covering half the expense of the cost to repair the part. The part is ordered and costs $240.79. The labor estimate to paint the part and install it is $130.00.

We have learned our lesson and will only use no-touch services moving forward. We hope that company reps will see our petition favorably and grant the request.

End Communication (with corrections)

The moral of the story...a $17 car wash became a near $500 repair AND, adding salt, pi$$, and vinegar to property injury, THE CAR WAS LESS THAN CLEAN AFTER THE WASH and Operating Partner Mr. Serio essentially said our concerns didn't matter, so lawyer up!

Neighbors, there you have it. Yes, we are responsible for not having duly weighed the risks to our car in entering Big Dan's, but YOU don't have to suffer loss. Learn from OUR experience: the unlisted service Big Dan's Car Wash provided us is an expensive education in personal economics. Be prepared for a less-than-clean vehicle, a potentially damaged automobile, and a more than probable nasty encounter with the Operating...

I've been a long-time membership customer since the carwash opened under the previous owners. When it changed to Big Dan's, I remained despite the price increase and not much else increasing alongside the quality of service or care to the vehicles. I've watched the ongoing turnover of staff and still remained. However, after this last incident upon completion of my monthly membership, I will be canceling. I am highly disappointed in how my recent situation has been handled. Having been told one thing and now hearing another almost appears as though my situation will possibly go unresolved which does not sit well with me. During a recent visit on 10/13/22 my vehicle entered the tunnel and at some point, something occurred causing the vehicle in front of me to stop. My vehicle hit the vehicle in front because there is evidently no system in place that automatically stops the vehicles if they come in close proximity to one another. I was initially informed that Big Dan's Carwash would cover the damages and I was responsible for obtaining two estimates from the collision shops. I provided the estimates on 10/14/22 to Patrick who I believe is the store manager. Patrick informed me that the district manager was made aware of the incident on 10/14/22 during the managers' meeting held and stated that he would follow up with the estimates with the District Manager, Norris Allan on Monday, October 17, 2022. I followed up with voicemails and emails and finally received an email back on Wednesday, October 19, 2022. The update now indicated that they were trying to get in contact with the other driver as they were now placing fault on him. The issues I have with this matter are if that were the case why was information not obtained the day of the incident as his vehicle was clearly in front of me and exited the tunnel before mine and was initially still on the scene. Furthermore, when I initially asked for the other driver's information (e.g. name, license plate etc). I was informed that again the car wash would be paying for the damages. I am highly disappointed in the inconsistencies that have occurred in the handling of my situation and the manager's failure to provide me with the requested information in order to pursue the other vehicle to cover the damages. To have to now go through my insurance is unfair and unjust. As a business, I am sure there is insurance that they have to cover situations like this that occur on their property and within the actual car wash tunnel. I would hope that Big Dan's would show a level of integrity and...

You guys need to get it together. Came here on a Sunday afternoon and there were three packed lines of cars feeding into one car wash. None of the guys knew what order the cars needed to follow into the wash, because for starters- 3 lines is probably one too many to feed into one lane to begin with, and secondly, most of the guys were not paying attention. I rolled down my window to ask when I should go, and one of the attendants incorrectly told me the wrong order- so I received a basic car wash instead of the most expensive one that I purchased. I hope the car in front of me enjoyed their expensive car wash, ha. I didn’t have time to go through that whole process again to get my money’s worth, but I probably won’t be back. The attendants were either: playing on their phones, talking to each other or singing to each other and not paying attention to the vehicles. And the ones who were supposed to brush the front and back of the vehicles before entering the wash were literally doing one quick swipe of a brush on the back end of cars and my husband and I were laughing at why they’d even go to the trouble. But I guess they were too busy socializing to care. The owner of this car wash needs to come up with a better system of supervision and also probably not try to feed three lanes of vehicles into one wash in the first place. It’s too hard to keep up with the order when you have people purchasing differently prices washes, and it seemed like the attendants were trying to pack as many vehicles inside that wash tube as humanly possible. There were at least 2 additional cars inside the wash the same time I was in there. This place is just an unorganized mess. And look, I know small businesses have been through the ringer in 2020 and are just trying to survive, so I’m not posting this to bash a business out of malice. And I’ll certainly take down this review if the issues are addressed. But, if I were the owner of this car wash, I’d want to know what was going on. I’d like to hope the owner cares, but maybe he/she doesn’t and is just focused on profits. And that’s okay if you (at the very least) give customers what they pay for -OR- if you run the business as a one-size-fits-all wash approach. But the systems currently put in place here don’t achieve either objective. If this place makes some serious changes, I’ll take my review down- but until then, the owner(s) need to know what’s going on. And I’ve tried this place three different times, so it wasn’t...